Purpose

This lesson establishes consistent expectations for age appropriate child safety education and everyday empowerment. It supports educators to teach protective concepts without fear, shame, secrecy or placing responsibility for preventing abuse on children.

Use current information

Use current NERPSA policies, service procedures, approved programs and reporting requirements. This lesson does not replace mandatory reporting, child protection, reportable conduct or emergency action.

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to

Explain children’s rights in accessible language.

Teach body safety without shame or fear.

Model consent and respect everyday boundaries.

Support children to identify several trusted adults.

Teach help seeking and persistent telling.

Create child friendly ways to raise concerns.

Respond safely to questions and disclosures.

Record and act on children’s voices.

Standards and evidence base

Requirement	Connection to this lesson
NERPSA policies	Child Safe Environment and Wellbeing; Code of Conduct; Interactions with Children; Educational Program; Inclusion and Equity; Compliments and Complaints; Privacy and Confidentiality; and Safe Use of Digital Technologies.
National Law and NQF	From 27 February 2026, children’s safety, rights and best interests are the paramount consideration in decisions and actions. Adults remain responsible for protection and required action.
National Quality Standard	Elements 2.2.3 and 5.1.2 connect child protection responsibilities with children’s dignity and rights. Quality Areas 1, 5 and 6 also support agency, participation, respectful relationships and family partnership.
Victorian Child Safe Standards	Standard 3 requires children to understand their rights, access age appropriate abuse prevention information, express views, raise concerns, participate in decisions and be taken seriously. Standards 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 also apply.
Updated VEYLDF	Child safety and wellbeing are strengthened throughout. Identity, community, wellbeing, learning and communication support children to understand themselves, express views and seek help.
Training status	This is internal professional learning. It does not replace mandatory national child safety training, Victorian child protection training or an approved protective behaviours program.

Important distinction

Protective behaviours education can strengthen children’s knowledge and confidence. It does not make a child responsible for recognising, stopping or reporting abuse. Adults and organisations remain responsible for prevention, supervision, safe conduct, listening and action.

Module one

Rights, safety and genuine empowerment

Children should know that they have the right to be safe, to receive information, to participate and to be taken seriously. These ideas must be visible in ordinary interactions, not reserved for a special lesson.

Child friendly messages

You have the right to feel safe and be safe.
Your body belongs to you.
You can ask questions and tell us what you think.
You can say when something feels uncomfortable or you need help.
Adults should listen and take your concerns seriously.
If one person does not help, keep telling another trusted adult.

Empowerment is not asking children for opinions and then ignoring them. Adults must show what was heard, explain decisions honestly and change practice where appropriate.

Module two

Body knowledge, privacy and safe language

Use calm, accurate and age appropriate language for body parts and functions, including correct anatomical terms. Accurate vocabulary reduces shame, supports health learning and helps children communicate clearly if something is wrong.

Professional approach

Answer simply, use the same respectful tone as for any body part, acknowledge family language and explain that some body parts are private.

Avoid

Jokes, secrecy, fear based warnings, suggesting bodies are dirty, demanding a child repeat words publicly or using euphemisms as the only language.

Private does not mean secret

Explain that private body parts are not for public viewing or touching, except when care, health or safety makes help necessary. The adult should explain what is happening, seek the child’s cooperation, protect dignity and follow service procedures. Children can always tell a trusted adult about touch, care or behaviour that worries them.

Module three

Personal boundaries, consent and everyday modelling

Children learn boundaries through what adults do. Ask before physical affection, explain necessary care, respond when a child withdraws and offer realistic choices. Do not force hugs, kisses, performances, photographs or public sharing.

Before assistance: “Your sleeve is wet. Would you like help changing it, or would you like to try first?”

When touch must occur for safety: “I am moving your hand away from the gate to keep you safe. I will let go when we are clear.”

When another child says stop: “They said stop. Move your hands back. We listen when someone tells us about their body or space.”

Consent has limits

Children cannot consent to abuse, unsafe conduct or an adult failing their duties. A child saying yes does not make inappropriate conduct acceptable. Adults must maintain professional boundaries and act in children’s best interests.

Module four

Feelings, early warning signs and unsafe situations

Help children notice body signals that may occur when they feel worried, unsafe, excited or uncertain, such as a fast heartbeat, tight stomach, shaking, sweating or wanting to move away. A body signal is information, not proof that a person is unsafe.

Teach without creating fear

Discuss a range of situations, including when a familiar person crosses a boundary.
Avoid “stranger danger” as the main message.
Do not imply that children should always trust an uncomfortable feeling without adult support and context.
Explain that emergencies, medical care and safety action can involve uncomfortable feelings.
Reassure children they will not be in trouble for asking for help.

Children may freeze, comply, remain silent, return to a person or disclose much later. None of these responses makes harm their fault.

Module five

Trusted adults, help seeking and persistent telling

Support each child to identify several adults they could approach across home, service and community contexts. A trusted adult is someone expected to listen, help and take action, not simply an adult the child likes.

A useful safety network

includes more than one person;
is reviewed because people and circumstances change;
is accessible to the child, including children who communicate nonverbally;
does not require every family to look the same;
includes ways to seek help when the usual person is unavailable; and
teaches: tell, keep telling and tell again until someone helps.

Educator language: “You can tell me with words, pictures, signs, gestures or by showing me. If I do not understand, I will keep trying to help.”

Module six

Participation and empowerment in everyday practice

Participation includes choices, but it is broader than choosing between two activities. Children should influence routines, environments, curriculum, safety information and how they communicate concerns.

Evidence that participation is genuine

children know who they can approach and how;
communication methods are accessible for disability, language and development;
educators seek quieter, nonverbal and dissenting views;
children’s complaints are not dismissed as attention seeking;
adults record what children communicated and what changed;
decisions are explained when a request cannot be followed; and
patterns in children’s views inform the program, risk controls and QIP.

Token voice

“The children chose the blue paint,” recorded as evidence of empowerment while routines, touch, privacy and complaints remain adult controlled.

Meaningful voice

Children indicate that the bathroom doorway feels exposed. Staff record the concern, strengthen privacy and later check whether children feel safer.

Module seven

Questions, disclosures, action and recording children’s voices

When a child asks a body safety question, respond calmly and directly. When a child communicates harm or concern, the priority changes from teaching to safety and required action.

Respond to a disclosure

Listen and remain calm.
Take the child seriously and acknowledge that telling was the right thing to do.
Do not promise secrecy.
Use minimal, open prompts only when needed to clarify immediate safety.
Do not investigate, repeatedly question or ask the child to demonstrate.
Act on immediate safety and reporting responsibilities without delay.
Record the child’s words and observable context factually as soon as possible.
Share only through authorised pathways and continue appropriate support.

Safe response: “Thank you for telling me. I am listening. This is not your fault. I may need to tell people whose job is to help keep you safe.”

Recording children’s voices

Distinguish exact words from paraphrase, record relevant nonverbal communication, date and context, the adult response, safety action and who received the information. Do not place a disclosure in ordinary program documentation or a public display.

Practice scenarios

A child says they do not want to hug a visiting relative.

Support the boundary without shaming the child or relative. Offer another greeting if the child wishes. Adults should not force affection to demonstrate politeness.

A child asks why an educator helped another child in the bathroom.

Give a simple privacy respecting explanation: adults sometimes help with care, health or safety; they explain what they are doing and protect the child’s dignity. Do not disclose the other child’s personal information.

A child repeatedly says the rest area feels unsafe but cannot explain why.

Take the concern seriously. Review supervision, sightlines, people, routines and the child’s communication needs. Offer alternative safety and support while gathering only information necessary for action.

Make the child safe decision

Select the strongest response. All three must be correct.

A child moves away when an adult asks for a goodbye hug.

A child quietly says that an adult told them to keep a touch secret.

Children communicate that a routine does not protect their privacy.

Complete all three decisions.

Required learning activity

Apply the learning to your service

How do children currently learn about their rights, safety and how to raise a concern at your service?

Identify one everyday practice where children’s body boundaries or privacy could be modelled more consistently.

How can children with different languages, disabilities or communication methods identify trusted adults and seek help?

Identify one way your service will record what children communicate and show how it influenced a decision.

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Knowledge check

Answer all questions. At least seven out of eight is required.

1. Who is responsible for preventing harm? Children after body safety education Adults and organisations retain responsibility Families alone

2. Why use accurate anatomical language? To reduce shame and support clear communication To make children repeat private words publicly To replace family language

3. What best models consent? Requiring affection for politeness Asking, noticing responses and respecting boundaries where safely possible Allowing unsafe choices

4. What should children learn about help seeking? Tell one person once Solve the problem independently Keep telling trusted adults until someone helps

5. What is genuine participation? Collecting views and showing how they influenced decisions Offering colour choices only Adults making every decision without explanation

6. What is the safest first response to a disclosure? Investigate fully Listen calmly, take it seriously and act on safety and reporting duties Promise secrecy

7. Where should a child safety disclosure be recorded? In public program documentation In the authorised child safety and reporting process In a family newsletter

8. What does Child Safe Standard 3 require? Children are informed, heard, supported to participate and taken seriously Children manage organisational safety Participation only for older children

Policies and official resources

NERPSA policies

Use current child safety, conduct, interactions, complaints, privacy and digital technology policies.

Open NERPSA policies

Child Safe Standard 3

Victorian minimum requirements for rights, participation, abuse prevention information and child friendly concerns.

Open Standard 3

Paramount consideration

ACECQA guidance on the 2026 duty to prioritise children’s safety, rights and best interests.

Open ACECQA guidance

Quality Area 2

Child safety and protection roles, supervision and management of risks.

Open Quality Area 2

Dignity and rights

ACECQA guidance for Element 5.1.2 and respectful practice.

Open Element 5.1.2

Approved protective education

Victorian program information for age appropriate protective behaviours and body safety education.

Open program information

Completion requirements

Read each module and scenario.
Complete all three decisions correctly.
Complete four written responses.
Achieve at least seven out of eight.
Complete the participant declaration.
Submit the complete PDF through the NERPSA Document Submission Form.

Generate your completion record

Full name

NERPSA service

Role

I confirm that I completed this lesson and assessment myself, that the responses are my own, and that I have not included names, disclosures or unnecessary confidential information.

Complete all requirements to unlock your record.

Choose Save as PDF, then submit the complete file through the NERPSA Document Submission Form in the NERPSA Connect App or Staff Resources website.

This is the only acknowledgement required. Please do not email the certificate or responses separately.

Protective Behaviours, Body Safety and Child Empowerment